Russia got to chink glasses with the IOC once more in Rio in 2016 - but the story did not end there... [All images are stills from "Red Herrings" by ARD]

One day to go before the IAAF votes on whether Russian track and field athletes should race at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Back in? Take Russian athletes, politicians and the Mayor of Rio out of the picture and it is hard to find anyone who wants a ‘Yes’ vote. The list of reasons to say ‘No’ just go deeper: anti-doping officials in Russia are being stopped from testing athletes and threatened by security services. Who says so? A new World Anti-Doping Agency report sent to the IAAF ahead of the vote

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One day to go before the IAAF votes on whether Russian track and field athletes should race at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Back in? Take Russian athletes, politicians and the Mayor of Rio out of the picture and it is hard to find anyone who wants a ‘Yes’ vote. The list of reasons to say ‘No’ just go deeper: anti-doping officials in Russia are being stopped from testing athletes and threatened by security services. Who says so? A new World Anti-Doping Agency report sent to the IAAF ahead of the vote

Comments

beachmouse
June 16, 2016

I have to admit there is dark humor in an athlete just kind of vanishing from the stadium/field of play in the middle of an active race to likely avoid anti-doping efforts. Was there a puff of smoke at that point? A beam of light shining down from the heavens at the moment of an alien abduction? A disintegration into a pool of technicolor goo that looked like spilled sports drink and energy gel? Someone making a lunge for a porta-potty while making claims of digestive upset and then they just stayed in there until officials wandered off?

Craig Lord
June 16, 2016

No idea, beachmouse but I have seen a swimmer racing about 5sec inside pb pace leave the water at 150m in a 200m medley and run off the deck (many years ago) and I have seen a Chinese swimmer forcibly push past anti-doping officials , leap over a fence a little over a metre high, run across stretch of grass, leap another fence and dive into a warm-down pool before they came to fish her out and take her back to anti-doping (Rome, 1994); also seen a swimmer in a sick bay after collapsing at the end of a ‘fly race and when asked what she had taken, she replied “coramina (a heart stimulant) – my doctor told me to take 1 if I wanted to do well, two if I wanted to do something really special – so I took three…” (again, that was a fair few years ago…)

Ger
June 16, 2016

It’s hard to see, given the evidence that has been presented, how a ban could not be imposed. A decision contrary to that would not be a sporting one.
An Olympic ban would likely force a change across the board (one would assume). That’s the message that needs to be delivered. If a country is allowed to continue is such a situation, what motivation does it have to clean house at the deepest levels?

Craig Lord
June 16, 2016

Quite so, Ger. The clean athlete of Russia must turn to their system and leaders in search of reasons why so much of the world feels they should stay home this season; pointless blaming the rest of the world for deep-rooted problems that are still very real. The message inherent in letting this go and letting Russian track and field back in given all that we know has come to pass would be ‘we tolerate’, not the ‘zero-tolerance’ policy the IOC downwards suggest they stand for.

Steve Levy
June 16, 2016

Craig…from last week but an interesting read on the Russian Sports Ministry hiring a US PR firm:

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